Month: July 2016

Breakfast bars

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It’s not a Greggs bacon roll, it’s better! (Kind of). Gluten free breakfast on the go can be a bit of a nightmare, but these gluten free breakfast bars are delicious and really quick to make. One batch will last you a couple of weeks too.

Ingredients:

1 x 400ml can light condensed milk

250g gluten free oats

75g dried coconut

125g seeds (e.g. pumpkin, sunflower)

125g nuts (e.g. almonds, pecans, walnuts)

100g dried fruit (e.g. raisins, cranberry)

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 140ºC/275ºF/Gas mark 1 and line a large rectangular baking tray greaseproof paper.
  2. Roughly chop your nuts or give them 10 seconds or so in the food processor. Add in the seeds for the last couple of seconds.
  3. Add the oats, coconut, nuts, seeds and fruit into a bowl.
  4. Pour the milk into a saucepan and place over a low heat. Heat for a couple of minutes until it loosens up in consistency, no need to bring it to the boil.
  5. Pour the milk into the bowl with all the other ingredients and stir well until the milk has covered everything.
  6. Spoon the mixture into the baking tray and spread evenly.
  7. Bake for 60 – 75 minutes until lightly brown on top.
  8. Lift onto a chopping board and allow to cool before slicing.
  9. You can make 24 small squares (6×4) or 12 larger rectangles (6×2).

 

Hanoi Bike Shop

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http://hanoibikeshop.co.uk/ 8 Ruthven Lane, Glasgow, G12 9BG

Opening hours: mon – thurs, 12.00 – 23.30; fri, 12.00 – 00.30;  sat, 11.00 – 00.30; sun, 11.00 – 23.00

Pho Han Sai – seafood noodle soup
Bun Thit Nuong – chargrilled pork patties
Prawn crackers
Cari-spiced beef curry

 

Visited: July 2016

My Gluten Free Glasgow rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ½ (out of 5)

Knowledge of staff: Have to say I sometimes dread gluten free chat with waiters, they can be no fun for anyone. Hanoi Bike Shop was refreshing because there was little need to engage in any gluten free chat at all, so informative was their menu. Staff were pretty knowledgeable about gluten free issues on the couple of questions I did have (the chili oil stuff is GF by the way), but double checked with the kitchen anyway – fine by me.

Gluten free menu: Hanoi Bike Shop has a seriously good separate gluten free menu. They even have a gluten free drinks menu.

What’s on offer: Loads of different options on the menu including their famous pho noodle soups, curries, and street food like beef wrapped in betel leaves and sesame chicken livers. There’s lots of sides too and their prawn crackers are gluten free! Bonus. Sadly not their delicious peanut dip though which I remember fondly from pre-gluten free days. Hanoi Bike Shop also make their own tofu in-house.

More info: Most of the mains don’t come with a side so remember and factor that in and don’t be left rice-less. A wee half mark off there on account of value for money.

Basically… If it’s good enough for Beyonce it’s good enough for me.

Spicy butternut soup

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They’d call this one a ‘winter warmer’. I think it’s equally good in any season. This makes 8 big bowls.

Ingredients:

400g or 2 large peeled onions

2kg or 2 very large peeled and deseeded butternuts

200g or 2/3 large peeled carrots

3 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoons medium curry powder

1 ltr water

1 ltr gluten free vegetable stock like Kallo or Bouillon

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method: 

  1. Slice your onions and crush the garlic.
  2. Add the oil to a very large soup pot and add the onions. Sweat them for around 10 minutes.
  3. In the meantime roughly chop all your other veg, the soup gets blitzed at the end so don’t worry about chopping nicely.
  4. Add the garlic and curry powder and simmer for another minute. Turn the heat down low while you do this so that the powder doesn’t burn.
  5. Add the butternut, carrots, water, stock, salt and pepper and turn the heat to medium.
  6. Cover and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
  7. Season again with salt and pepper if needed.
  8. Use a blender to blitz the soup until it’s nice and smooth. NOTE – wait until the soup is cool before you do this unless you want soup on your ceiling (was very hard to clean).

 

 

Mother India’s Cafe

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http://motherindia.co.uk/   1355 Argyle St., Glasgow, G3 8AD

Opening hours: mon – thurs, 12.00 – 22.30; fri – sat, 12.00 – 23.00; sun, 12.00 – 22.00

Butter chicken
channa daal
fish pakora
Saag paneer
Allergen list is available

 

My Gluten Free Glasgow rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ (out of 5)

Knowledge of staff:  Staff are friendly and knowledgeable about their gluten free menu.

Gluten free menu: Ask for their gluten free menu and you will get a version of their menu which lists all allergens, including gluten, dairy and nuts.

What’s on offer: You can breathe a sigh of relief, the vast majority of Mother India’s dishes are gluten free. That includes all the fav’s like butter chicken, chilli garlic chicken, saag paneer, fish pakora and many more. None of their breads are gluten free. But I strongly believe that gives you permission to eat your body weight in rice.

More info: You can’t book a table here, and even on a week night expect to queue for a table. Takeaways available.

Basically… Glasgow’s gluten free curry heavyweight

Victoria sponge

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Shock your pals when they discover this cake is gluten free! (Actual shock) 

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

175g caster sugar

175g gluten free flour

3 large eggs

50 ml milk

2 tsp gluten free baking powder

For the middle and top:

Half a jar of jam (any flavour)

150ml whipping cream

Fruit to decorate

  1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5 and prepare two 20cm/8in round cake tins with greaseproof paper.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl. I use an electric whisk.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
  4. Mix in the flour, baking powder then slowly add the milk.
  5. Pour the cake mix evenly into the two tins, and bake for 20 minutes until light brown on top and a toothpick into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
  6. Flip the cakes out of the tins and allow to cool.
  7. In a bowl whisk the cream until it reaches a consistency for spreading on top of your cake, around 3 – 5 minutes.
  8. Make sure the cakes can sit nicely on top of each and if you need to, skim off any raised or bumpy sections with a knife.
  9. Once they’re completely cool, fill with jam and top with cream and fruit.

Singl-end

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http://singl-end.co.uk/ 265 Renfrew St., Glasgow, G3 6TT

Opening hours: mon – fri, 9am – 5pm; sat, 10am – 6pm; sun, 10am – 5pm

Caramel shortcake
Baked eggs with fennel sausage
Peanut butter and jelly cake
Singlend eggs benedict
Bread menu

My Gluten Free Glasgow rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ½ (out of 5)

Knowledge of staff:  The staff are dead nice and take gluten free business seriously.

Gluten free menu: The whole menu has been designed with various dietary requirements in mind, including dairy free, gluten free and vegan. This means nearly everything on the menu is gluten free, or can be adapted to be gluten free. FYI it doesn’t actually state that on the menu, I had to double check with our waitress. This is what lost them the half point by the way, I like to know up front what I can and can’t have off a menu.

What’s on offer: Delicious brunch and lunch options. Baked eggs, full cooked breakfasts, open sandwiches, omelettes, soups and lots and lots of cake (I counted seven GF cakes on the counter, SEVEN). Fresh breads are baked in house of which there are FOUR gluten free ones daily. Vegans and meat eaters alike well catered for.

More info: Singl-end makes the usual disclaimer that due to cross contamination they cannot guarantee their food to be 100% gluten free. I noticed labelled GF tongs being used at the cake counter, which is nice to see.

Basically… Gluten free cake mecca.

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